On January 4, the President of the United States declared war on gun owners.

His lawless, anti-gun power-grab potentially threatens every gun owner in the country. It represents one of the boldest executive actions against gun owners in history.

First, there’s his efforts to turn collectors and hobbyists into “gun dealers.”

This would take us back to the “bad old days” in which the ATF tried to imprison collectors who sold only a couple of firearms.

Under Obama’s new amorphous standards, even the sale of a single gun could land you in prison.

On one hand, Obama wants to turn collectors and hobbyists into “gun dealers.” On the other hand, under Clinton-era policies, he won’t give licenses to collectors and hobbyists without “bricks-and-mortar” storefronts.

So the liar-in-chief is trying to set a trap in which collecting firearms is effectively outlawed.

But to pass Obama’s anti-gun “legacy” sentencing bill, while doing NOTHING about the unconstitutional anti-gun executive actions which Republicans claim to oppose would tell us, once and for all, that the GOP is as contemptuous of the Second Amendment as the Democrats are.

So please contact Senator Ted Cruz. Thank him for opposing the anti-gun sentencing bill. And urge him to offer amendments to defund every element of Obama’s illegal “executive action” if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell forces the bill to the floor.

And contact Senator Mitch McConnell. Tell him that you are opposed to moving the anti-gun “Obama legacy” sentencing bill at the same time Obama is spitting on the Constitution through his unlawful “executive actions.”

Please take action today! At the very least, this anti-gun bill needs to go to the floor with amendments outlawing every part of Obama’s anti-gun executive action.

“Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.

The revelation is sure to roil American and Israeli critics of the main Iran deal signed by the U.S., Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the deal is built on trust of the Iranians, a claim the U.S. has denied.

The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal.

The Parchin deal is a separate, side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers that signed the Iran nuclear deal were not party to this agreement but were briefed on it by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package.

Without divulging its contents, the Obama administration has described the document as nothing more than a routine technical arrangement between Iran and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency on the particulars of inspecting the site.

Any IAEA member country must give the agency some insight into its nuclear program. Some countries are required to do no more than give a yearly accounting of the nuclear material they possess. But nations- like Iran – suspected of possible proliferation are under greater scrutiny that can include stringent inspections.

But the agreement diverges from normal inspection procedures between the IAEA and a member country by essentially ceding the agency’s investigative authority to Iran. It allows Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied – trying to develop nuclear weapons.”

“Donald Trump thinks the United States will not see another black president for some time because Barack Obama has “set a very poor standard,” the billionaire businessman, entertainer and Republican presidential candidate told ABC News on Sunday. Trump — who has questioned whether Obama was born in the United States and was once sued by the Justice Department because the management of his apartment complexes allegedly discriminated against black tenants — also thinks he’ll win the black vote.

Trump responded to a question on the show about a tweet he sent last year saying America would not see another black president for generations because of how poorly he thought Obama had done.

“He has done nothing for African Americans. You look at what’s gone on with their income levels. You look at what’s gone on with their youth. I thought that he would be a great cheerleader for this country. I thought he’d do a fabulous job for the African American citizens of this country. He has done nothing,” Trump said.

“They have problems now in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment numbers. And you have — here you have a black president who’s done very poorly for the African Americans of this country,” Trump said. “I think that I will win the African American vote and I think I will win the Hispanic vote.”

Trump also distanced himself from his past praise of some of his current opponents, basically acknowledging he only said nice things about them in the past because he needed good relationships with politicians for business purposes.

Trump also would not rule out a third-party run for office, saying only that he wouldn’t run as an independent if he was treated fairly by the Republican party.”

“A distinguished historian with over a decade inside the US Department of Defense shows how the downsizing of our armed forces lowers the nation’s defense and puts us at risk.

In this stunningly detailed account of US military power in the Obama era, Mark Moyar reveals how Obama’s military decisions have led to the international catastrophes of his second term. While our current downward spiral did not grab the attention of the American people until 2014, Moyar finds its roots in Obama’s first-term decisions to shrink the US military and replace large overseas military commitments with “light footprints.”

Obama’s preoccupation with his political self-interest has consistently trumped the national interest. Moyar documents how Obama has failed to deliver on his substitutes for military power. Cutting through the chaff of partisan bickering with penetrating analysis, he homes in on the events and personalities driving failures across the globe.

Moyar illustrates how Obama’s policies led to the rise of ISIS, and how conditions are primed for future cataclysms. He shows how the killing of the US ambassador at Benghazi was the result of a light-footprint approach in Libya, and reveals the problems stemming from our reliance on drone strikes. The ongoing military draw-down and international perceptions of Obama’s passivity have heightened the risks to America from her enemies.

Drawing upon the lessons of Obama’s presidency, Moyar concludes by identifying a better way for US national security in the twenty-first century. Strategic Failure is a timely and fascinating opening salvo in the looming 2016 showdown between Republican and Democratic presidential contenders.”

Mark Moyar, author of Strategic Failure: How President Obama’s Drone Warfare, Defense Cuts, And Military Amateurism Have Imperiled America. Moyar is a visiting scholar at the Foreign Policy Initiative.

The defense team for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber, will have to weigh the risks and rewards of putting their enigmatic client on the stand…

“In the trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, more than 50 witnesses have been called to the US District Court in South Boston to give vivid and dramatic testimony recounting four fateful days in April 2013. Victims and experts have appeared in chronological order to piece together the chain of events, helping the jury become all too familiar with phrases like “military-grade explosives,” “shrapnel,” and “carotid artery.”

But all this witness testimony has orbited around one central character who has so far remained inscrutable to outside observers and, presumably, the jury. Amid the often agonizing detail of the bombings recounted daily in the courtroom, the thoughts and feelings of Mr. Tsarnaev himself have remained stubbornly elusive.

Lawyers on both sides have attempted to drop hints about Tsarnaev throughout the trial, trying to assert his personal level of culpability in a crime that the defense acknowledges he carried out with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, now deceased. Testimony from FBI investigators and cellphone experts has fixated on how the brothers were physically positioned at the marathon finish line: Was Dzhokhar standing next to Tamerlan? Or behind him? Also, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had two Twitter accounts – one of which seemed much more preoccupied with Islam than the other – but was this evidence of a religious radicalism, or was it harmless quotes of rap lyrics and TV shows?”

Americans for Peace and Tolerance is a Boston-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting peaceful coexistence in an ethnically diverse America by educating the American public about the need for a moderate political leadership that supports tolerance and core American values in communities across the nation. Americans for Peace and Tolerance is an organization composed of concerned citizens, academics, and community activists. As Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we are united by the need to keep America hate-free. We believe peaceful coexistence among diverse ethnic populations is only possible if we promote a climate of tolerance and civil society.

Dr. Charles Jacobs is President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance. Jacobs has been widely published, including in The Boston Globe, The Jerusalem Post, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, and he currently writes a column for the Boston Jewish Advocate.